Where to Have a Martini in London

The Connaught Hotel in London, part of the Maybourne Group, has revamped their bar with the help of interior designer David Collins. In fact, the Maybourne Group hired a slew of designers to refresh their three iconic London hotels with new suites, rooms, and restaurants. In addition to getting design buzz, the investment is apparently paying off, as they are still achieving occupancy over 80%.

I'm not actually crazy for the re-designs of the other spaces, but this bar is awesome. Interestingly, notice how little the furniture has to do with the overall success of the room. I mean it matters of course, but as is usually the case with restaurants and bars, it's the scale, finishes, and lighting that set the tone...



The mirror behind the bar, the gold back-plate on the sconces, the panelling, the black reflective finish in the pass-throughs between the rooms. The black reflective finish (plastic?) also adds a little modern edge, which is nice.

Even with the furniture, what matters most here is not the style of the furniture, but rather the color and texture-- here, black leather and more black leather, even on the table tops (cool, also like the nailheads on the table edge, incidentally). The density of black furniture also helps to ground the room, which is important given its super high ceilings. And speaking of scale, imagine how differently the room would feel if the ceilings were two-thirds the height...

Also interesting is the repeated use of rounded edges -- on the "windows" and doorway, echoed in the mirror through the doorway, even the chairs and tables are rounded and don't have corners. I think it helps soften what could be a rather austere or formal space.



via wandermelon travel website



And for a totally random aside, these guys would look sharp in there, wouldn't they?


Models backstage before the Zegna show at Milan A/W.

I think this photo is really cool visually - the way you immediately notice their hands because they are all dressed almost identically and evenly spaced across the frame. It actually looks more like a contemporary art photo to me than just a snapshot backstage-- it seems so tense and like it's begging for some kind of interpretation about why these guys are together and dressed alike (if you imagine they aren't at a fashion show).

from Wallpaper's photos of Milan A/W 2010.